Bernie Sanders Proposes Reducing Americans’ Workweek to 32 Hours

[edjr 5,567]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/13/us/donald-trump-charges-quashed-georgia-mcafee.html

 

 

Quote

 

Senator Bernie Sanders this week unveiled legislation to reduce the standard workweek in the United States from 40 hours to 32, without a reduction in pay, saying Americans are working longer hours for less pay despite advances in technology and productivity.

The law, if passed, would pare down the workweek over a four-year period, lowering the threshold at which workers would be eligible to receive overtime pay. The 40-hour workweek has stood as the standard in the United States since it became enshrined in federal law in 1940.

In a hearing on Thursday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the proposed law, Mr. Sanders, independent of Vermont, said profits from boosts in productivity over the decades had been reaped only by corporate leaders, and not shared with workers.

“The sad reality is that Americans now work more hours than the people of any other wealthy nation,” he said, citing statistics that workers in the U.S. on average work for hundreds of hours longer each week than their counterparts in Japan, Britain and Germany.

Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, said at the hearing such a reduction would hurt employers, ship jobs overseas and cause dramatic spikes in consumer prices.

“It would threaten millions of small businesses operating on a razor-thin margin because they are unable to find enough workers,” Mr. Cassidy said.

Mr. Sanders is far from the first to propose the idea, which has been floated by Richard Nixon, pitched by autoworkers and experimented with by companies ranging from Shake Shack to Kickstarter and Unilever’s New Zealand unit.

But the concept has gathered steam in recent years, as the Covid-19 pandemic has caused fundamental shifts in work culture and reset expectations about employment. Representative Mark Takano, Democrat of California, introduced the 32-Hour Workweek Act in the House in 2021, and has reintroduced it as a companion bill to the one sponsored by Mr. Sanders in the Senate.

In proposing the legislation, Mr. Sanders cited a trial conducted by 61 companies in Britain in 2022, in which most of the companies that went down to a four-day workweek saw that revenues and productivity remained steady, while attrition dropped significantly. The study was conducted by a nonprofit, 4 Day Week Global, with researchers at Cambridge University, Boston College and a think tank, Autonomy.

Juliet Schor, an economist at Boston College who was the lead researcher on the study, testified at Thursday’s hearing that 91 percent of the companies that switched to a four-day workweek had stuck with the new arrangement a year later.

“Participants tell us the new schedule is life-changing,” Ms. Schor told senators.

Critics, including some who testified at this week’s hearing, say many of the pilot programs narrowly focus on the types of companies that can afford the flexibility in work schedules, and disregard many companies with employees doing on hands-on work.

“There is no statistical evidence to merit a nationwide mandate of a 32-hour workweek,” said Liberty Vittert, a statistics professor at Washington University in St. Louis. “If it works for some companies in some sectors, that is great, but it cannot be applied to all sectors.”

 

I would have been for this a year ago. My new job I "work" 35 hours. 8 hours, 1 hour lunch.

[seafoam1 1,879]

No one who works only 35 hour work weeks is important to their company.

[Bier Meister 1,514]

40 hrs/wk  is a vacation

[weepaws 2,460]

Lazy, high, stupid , is what this government wants, just wait and see what happens when the you vote for the next criminal to be president.  Shame on you for voting for this crap.  

[squistion 896]

People on the left don't even pay attention to what Bernie Sanders has to say anymore. 

[seafoam1 1,879]

Just now, squistion said:

People on the left don't even pay attention to what Bernie Sanders has to say anymore. 

He's a focking nutcase but he's the closest thing the left has to being a normal. 

[seafoam1 1,879]

3 minutes ago, weepaws said:

Lazy, high, stupid , is what this government wants, just wait and see what happens when the you vote for the next criminal to be president.  Shame on you for voting for this crap.  

I am the Lord your God.

Wake up dumbass. 

[TheNewGirl 1,031]

how does this work with the new $20/minimum wage? More money and less hours? 

[squistion 896]

3 minutes ago, TheNewGirl said:

how does this work with the new $20/minimum wage? More money and less hours? 

This proposal will probably never become law, even in the most progressive left leaning states, so that issue will not have to be dealt with. 

[weepaws 2,460]

36 minutes ago, seafoam1 said:

I am the Lord your God.

Wake up dumbass. 

You have a ghey brother 

[seafoam1 1,879]

Just now, weepaws said:

You have a ghey brother 

No. I won't set you up with him. He doesn't like trannies. 

[weepaws 2,460]

9 minutes ago, TheNewGirl said:

how does this work with the new $20/minimum wage? More money and less hours? 

Money to buy drugs, booze, and more time to use them, it’s what the red and blue team want.  Biden/ Trump will destroy this country.  

Shame on you that vote for the destruction of this country.  

[weepaws 2,460]

Just now, seafoam1 said:

No. I won't set you up with him. He doesn't like trannies. 

You have a ghey brother 

[seafoam1 1,879]

Just now, weepaws said:

You have a ghey brother 

You have two fathers. 

[weepaws 2,460]

1 minute ago, seafoam1 said:

You have two fathers. 

You have a ghey brother 

[HellToupee 749]

Good way to ease people into the AI future and the 4th industrial revolution 

[Cdub100 3,381]

32 is 12 too many

[Herbivore 905]

50 minutes ago, weepaws said:

Lazy, high, stupid , is what this government wants, just wait and see what happens when the you vote for the next criminal to be president.  Shame on you for voting for this crap.  

You could have more time to pray. 

also, can you pick just one Luke verse. It is a pain scrolling past your posts with the long tag. 

[iam90sbaby 2,125]

I actually agree with this.  5 days on 2 days off is bullsh!t. No required vacation is bullsh!t.  Forcing people to work major holidays is bullsh!t. And I say this as a person who gets all of those things.

[TheNewGirl 1,031]

42 minutes ago, squistion said:

This proposal will probably never become law, even in the most progressive left leaning states, so that issue will not have to be dealt with. 

For the sake of his proposal though, how would this work? 

You have a set of his constituents who say that they aren't being paid enough, and that 40 hours is too much. Yes, I realize that it may never have to be dealt with. 

But if you want to have a discussion about these proposals and be serious about them, then take all of this other garbage into account. 

These people don't want to work as much, yet they want more money, yet they want big corporations to foot the bill for everything. The whole entire thing cannot work. But people don't seem to see the BIG picture, I guess is what I am trying to say. 

They just seem to focus on this ONE thing. Like the $20 min wage. Oh, here you go! Here's your increase! Oh wait. Now this is more. So is this. And now these people have lost their jobs, but wait, the CEO's didn't take a cut like they were supposed to....it doesn't work the way these people think it will. 

[edjr 5,567]

Bernie seems like the kind of guy that wants 0 hour work weeks and pay people to vote D and do nothing all day

[edjr 5,567]

23 minutes ago, iam90sbaby said:

I actually agree with this.  5 days on 2 days off is bullsh!t. No required vacation is bullsh!t.  Forcing people to work major holidays is bullsh!t. And I say this as a person who gets all of those things.

Same here. Agree 100%

[Mike Honcho 4,035]

Wait, most of you have jobs?  

[Fnord 1,141]

1 hour ago, Bier Meister said:

40 hrs/wk  is a vacation

Fukin A right. I was just thinking that if this passed, with some luck I could whittle my work week down to 45 hours or so. I've told my employer repeatedly I'd happily work 4 12's every week for that extra day off. I have been politely told to pound sand. Of course I'm salaried so it's all relative.

But I guess I'll take it if I get to spend that extra time drinking and drugging, like weepaws says. 

[Hardcore troubadour 12,653]

Can this fraud just go away at this point? Take Warren, McConnell and Mitt with him. I once thought he had something. 3 mansions later I don’t. 

[IGotWorms 3,315]

I think it makes sense for a lot of while collar jobs. You’ve got plenty of those where people sit at their desk just to be there and really don’t have to be present 40hrs per week to get the job done.

But what about blue collar and service industry jobs? Theres a bit less rationale there for the change. I suppose it would be nice for those people if they also got an extra day off and you’d just have to hire more employees to make up the shortfall in hours. Could work 

[Bier Meister 1,514]

2 minutes ago, Fnord said:

Fukin A right. I was just thinking that if this passed, with some luck I could whittle my work week down to 45 hours or so. I've told my employer repeatedly I'd happily work 4 12's every week for that extra day off. I have been politely told to pound sand. Of course I'm salaried so it's all relative.

But I guess I'll take it if I get to spend that extra time drinking and drugging, like weepaws says. 

salaried/exempt as well. 

often have to work holidays (despite proactive measure not too).

[edjr 5,567]

10 minutes ago, Bier Meister said:

salaried/exempt as well. 

often have to work holidays (despite proactive measure not too).

I am salaried/exempt as well. Luckily, I have never had a job that I have to work more than 40 hours. 

What I am worried about is PTO. If I take a week vacation, no one will be here to do anything and I will come back to a potential shitstorm

[Fnord 1,141]

1 minute ago, Bier Meister said:

salaried/exempt as well. 

often have to work holidays (despite proactive measure not too).

Ouch. I am REQUIRED to take holidays off, but have to use PTO. Only the 6 major holidays count, so I'm working on the 2nd rate ones like Presidents, MLK, and Veterans days.

I don't "work" on weekends, but do occasionally have to attend high priority virtual meetings and have to be on call one holiday and 7 weekends per year. And with two kids, most of my "free" time is just work away from work.

[IGotWorms 3,315]

1 hour ago, TheNewGirl said:

how does this work with the new $20/minimum wage? More money and less hours? 

Yeah that’s kinda what I’m saying. Might make sense for salaried white collar jobs but how does this work for hourly people?

[IGotWorms 3,315]

1 hour ago, squistion said:

This proposal will probably never become law, even in the most progressive left leaning states, so that issue will not have to be dealt with. 

Polls show that it has a lot of support. Even among a majority of republicans!

But yeah, doesn’t mean it’ll happen.

[edjr 5,567]

Just now, IGotWorms said:

Yeah that’s kinda what I’m saying. Might make sense for salaried white collar jobs but how does this work for hourly people?

I am sure hourly people will be happy making $640 over 4 days instead of $600 over 5

[IGotWorms 3,315]

22 minutes ago, edjr said:

Bernie seems like the kind of guy that wants 0 hour work weeks and pay people to vote D and do nothing all day

My hero!

[edjr 5,567]

Just now, IGotWorms said:

My hero!

Pretty sure you, like I would hang ourselves if we made the same as peefoam

[Bier Meister 1,514]

3 minutes ago, edjr said:

I am salaried/exempt as well. Luckily, I have never had a job that I have to work more than 40 hours. 

1 minute ago, Fnord said:

Ouch. I am REQUIRED to take holidays off, but have to use PTO. Only the 6 major holidays count, so I'm working on the 2nd rate ones like Presidents, MLK, and Veterans days.

I don't "work" on weekends, but do occasionally have to attend high priority virtual meetings and have to be on call one holiday and 7 weekends per year. And with two kids, most of my "free" time is just work away from work.

If i am lucky, i will have Saturdays off. 

supposed to be off thanksgiving and Christmas, but am available for emergencies.  had to deal with emergencies this year over thanksgiving, Christmas, and new year's. some of these were a result of my company, some of these were a result of clients who did not follow holiday protocol ... so, their negligence impacted my time off

[Hardcore troubadour 12,653]

Last year I started a “full” time job. 32 hours a week, mandatory half hour unpaid lunch.  Thanks libshits. 

[Engorgeous George 1,176]

48 minutes ago, Fnord said:

Fukin A right. I was just thinking that if this passed, with some luck I could whittle my work week down to 45 hours or so. I've told my employer repeatedly I'd happily work 4 12's every week for that extra day off. I have been politely told to pound sand. Of course I'm salaried so it's all relative.

But I guess I'll take it if I get to spend that extra time drinking and drugging, like weepaws says. 

I like the cut of your jib. I like my coke with cognac, my shrooms with a good single malt, and my pot with an ice cold beer.  Peyote I refrain from drink, and acid, well its all good then.

[Thornton Melon 544]

42 minutes ago, edjr said:

I am salaried/exempt as well. Luckily, I have never had a job that I have to work more than 4 hours. 

Fixed

[Engorgeous George 1,176]

He should have proposed stazrting with 4 10's, then after a year or two reducing to 4 9's, then again 4 8.5's, and finally 4 8's.  Incrementalism.  Get that camel's nose in the tent.   a guy with bernie's nose should appreciate the concept.

[edjr 5,567]

16 minutes ago, Thornton Melon said:

Fixed